Gloria Petyarre

Gloria Petyarre, born circa 1945 has come to be an acclaimed and influential artist in the contemporary indgenous art scene. Her unique style representing several of her dreaming stories including Mountain Devil Lizard, Grass Seeds and Bush medicine leaves combines rich colours with formed curved lines producing a rhythmic, movement effect.

Born in Atnangkere on the outskirts of the Utopia Region in the Northern Territory, speaking the Anmatyerre language, Gloria experienced a traditional upbringing before moving to an established settlement on the Utopia station.

During 1977 Gloria became a founding member of the Utopia Women's Batik Group where she developed a strong interest in art. It was through this medium of merging the aspects of traditional womens business onto silk that Gloria first began to gain recognition as an artist.

In the 1980's Gloria apart of the unprecedented 'summer project' of painting on canvas, switched to painting full time on this new medium favouring its greater freedom of control. This allowed her to further abstract her style, experimenting with line and colour creating optical effects. This is particularly evident in perhaps her most recognised work 'Leaves' which she has refined over the years from scattered leaves to entangled whirls of leaves creating significant movement. Gloria's optically effective 'leaves' went on to win Australias longest running and highly prestigous Wynne Prize in 1999.

Gloria's intricate art work saw her travel to Ireland, England and India in 1990 as a representative of the Utopia – A Picture Story exhibition, followed up by a solo exhibition in 1991 in Australia. Gloria was and still is represented by many Australian art galleries including the National gallery of Australia.

With a strong artistic family including her acclaimed sisters Ada, Mrytle and most notably Kathleen Petyarre, as well as being the niece of perhaps the most acclaimed and decorated indigenous artist Emily Kngawarre, Gloria Petyarre has created her own unique and abstract style of artwork. Constantly innovating her work, Gloria continues to convey her understanding of the traditional aboriginal culture in her artwork.